About Ivan Puchalt
Ivan Puchalt handles catastrophic personal injury, employment, product liability, wrongful death, and municipal liability. He has earned Consumer Attorney of the Year nominations from CAOC in 2013, 2014, and 2018, and was a 2024 finalist for CAALA Trial Lawyer of the Year. He won a $6.1 million jury verdict for two UC Riverside faculty whistleblowers who reported misappropriation of a $15 million state mental health grant. He secured an $11.2 million verdict in Yolo County against a beverage company for a dangerously designed loading dock that left a truck driver severely injured.
As co-lead trial attorney, he obtained a $39.5 million verdict in a wrongful termination and whistleblower case against the UC Regents on behalf of a UCSD oncologist. He helped obtain a $36.1 million verdict for an 11-year-old girl struck by a car while crossing to her school bus, and a $7.6 million verdict against the City of San Diego for a man paralyzed by a falling palm tree. He earned his B.A. magna cum laude from UC Berkeley (1998) and his J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (2006).
Proven verdicts and settlements
A San Bernardino jury awarded $36.1 million to a child who suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures after being struck by a car while crossing mid-block to reach her school bus stop, finding Durham School Services 80% liable for failing to prevent the dangerous crossing.
Kelly Kaneko, then 36, was volunteering at a Los Angeles Animal Services shelter in Lincoln Heights in October 2019 when a 100-pound German Shepherd mix named Jaxx bit her arm and held on for more than five minutes. The dog's kennel card said nothing of his history, including a prior bite to his previous owner. At the end of May 2023, a Los Angeles jury found the City grossly negligent and awarded her $6.8 million.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded Genice Horta, 51, $5.4 million after a Belgian Malinois with a documented bite history severely injured her right hand and arm at the East Valley Animal Shelter on Sept. 23, 2020. After a 10-day trial, jurors assigned 62.5 percent of fault to the City of Los Angeles, 25 percent to the rescue group and 12.5 percent to Horta. She underwent six surgeries and has permanent damage.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
